Devices and Methods for a Speech-Based User Interface

ABSTRACT

A device may identify a plurality of sources for outputs that the device is configured to provide. The plurality of sources may include at least one of a particular application in the device, an operating system of the device, a particular area within a display of the device, or a particular graphical user interface object. The device may also assign a set of distinct voices to respective sources of the plurality of sources. The device may also receive a request for speech output. The device may also select a particular source that is associated with the requested speech output. The device may also generate speech having particular voice characteristics of a particular voice assigned to the particular source.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This patent application is a continuation of, and claims priority under35 U.S.C. § 120 from, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/874,051, filedon Jan. 18, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 14/711,264, filed on May 13, 2015. The disclosures of theseprior applications are considered part of the disclosure of thisapplication and are hereby incorporated by reference in theirentireties.

BACKGROUND

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in thissection are not prior art to the claims in this application and are notadmitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.

Speech-based user interfaces (SUIs) allow computing devices to interactwith users through speech. For example, an SUI may employ various speechprocessing technologies such as automatic speech recognition (ASR) toreceive information or instructions spoken by a user. Further, the SUImay employ speech synthesis technologies such as text-to-speech (TTS) toprovide information to the user in the form of computer-generatedspeech.

SUIs may facilitate various modes of human-machine interaction includinga hands-free mode of operation, a multi-modal mode of operation, and anaccessibility mode of operation, among other possibilities. As anexample of hands-free operation, a navigation application in a computingdevice may provide driving directions to a driver throughcomputer-generated speech. As an example of multi-modal operation, atest-taking application in the computing device may provide visualinstructions to a test-taker along with speech prompts for timeremaining in the test. As an example of accessibility operation, anoperating system or a screen-reader application may recite or describecontents of a display of the device to a visually impaired user or anyother user operating the device in the accessibility mode.

To facilitate speech synthesis, a computing device typically accesses acorpus of recorded speech from a speaker that has a particular voice(e.g., male, female, child, adult, high-pitch, low-pitch, etc.).Alternatively, the corpus may include representations of the recordedspeech (e.g., acoustic feature parameters, etc.).

Typically, a computing device may employ TTS as a system serviceavailable to at least some applications in the computing device. By wayof example, an application in the device may provide text to the TTSsystem. In turn, the TTS system may generate synthetic speech byconcatenating one or more recorded speech sounds to recite the text.Alternatively, for instance, the TTS system may generate the syntheticspeech for the text by modulating signals to a speaker of the deviceaccording to stored acoustic feature parameters.

SUMMARY

In one example, a method is provided that includes a device identifyinga plurality of sources for outputs that the device is configured toprovide. The device may include one or more processors. The plurality ofsources includes at least one of a particular application in the device,an operating system of the device, a particular area within a display ofthe device, or a particular graphical user interface (GUI) object. Themethod also includes assigning a set of distinct voices to respectivesources of the plurality of sources. A voice assigned to one source ischaracterized by voice characteristics different from voicecharacteristics of other voices assigned to other sources. The methodalso includes receiving a request for speech output. The method alsoincludes selecting, from within the plurality of sources, a particularsource that is associated with the requested speech output. The methodalso includes generating, for the requested speech output, speech havingparticular voice characteristics of a particular voice assigned to theparticular source.

In another example, a device is provided that comprises one or moreprocessors and data storage storing instructions executable by the oneor more processors. The instructions cause the device to identify aplurality of sources for outputs that the device is configured toprovide. The plurality of sources includes at least one of a particularapplication in the device, or an operating system of the device. Theinstructions also cause the device to assign a set of distinct voices torespective sources of the plurality of sources. A voice assigned to onesource is characterized by voice characteristics different from voicecharacteristics of other voices assigned to other sources. Theinstructions also cause the device to receive a request for speechoutput. The instructions also cause the device to select, from withinthe plurality of sources, a particular source that is associated withthe requested speech output. The instructions also cause the device togenerate, for the requested speech output, speech having particularvoice characteristics of a particular voice assigned to the particularsource.

In yet another example, a computer readable medium is provided. Thecomputer readable medium may have instructions stored therein that, whenexecuted by a computing device, cause the computing device to performfunctions. The functions include identifying a plurality of sources foroutputs that the computing device is configured to provide. Theplurality of sources include at least one of a particular application inthe computing device, an operating system of the computing device, aparticular area within a display of the computing device, or aparticular graphical user interface (GUI) object. The functions alsoinclude assigning a set of distinct voices to respective sources of theplurality of sources. A voice assigned to one source is characterized byvoice characteristics different from voice characteristics of othervoices assigned to other sources. The functions also include receiving arequest for speech output. The functions also include selecting, fromwithin the plurality of sources, a particular source that is associatedwith the requested speech output. The functions also include generating,for the requested speech output, speech having particular voicecharacteristics of a particular voice assigned to the particular source.

In still another example, a system is provided that comprises a meansfor identifying a plurality of sources for outputs that a device isconfigured to provide. The plurality of sources includes at least one ofa particular application in the device, an operating system of thedevice, a particular area within a display of the device, or aparticular graphical user interface (GUI) object. The system furthercomprises a means for assigning a set of distinct voices to respectivesources of the plurality of sources. A voice assigned to one source ischaracterized by voice characteristics different from voicecharacteristics of other voices assigned to other sources. The systemfurther comprises a means for receiving a request for speech output. Thesystem further comprises a means for selecting, from within theplurality of sources, a particular source that is associated with therequested speech output. The system further comprises a means forgenerating, for the requested speech output, speech having particularvoice characteristics of a particular voice assigned to the particularsource.

These as well as other aspects, advantages, and alternatives, willbecome apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art by reading thefollowing detailed description, with reference where appropriate to theaccompanying figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 illustrates a device, according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a device, according to an exampleembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a text-to-speech synthesis system,according to an example embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a method, according to an exampleembodiment.

FIG. 5A illustrates a user interface, according to an exampleembodiment.

FIG. 5B is a block diagram illustrating various areas of the userinterface of FIG. 5A.

FIG. 6 depicts a computer-readable medium configured according to anexample embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description describes various features andfunctions of the disclosed systems and methods with reference to theaccompanying figures. In the figures, similar symbols identify similarcomponents, unless context dictates otherwise. The illustrative system,device and method embodiments described herein are not meant to belimiting. It may be readily understood by those skilled in the art thatcertain aspects of the disclosed systems, devices and methods can bearranged and combined in a wide variety of different configurations, allof which are contemplated herein.

In some instances, a computing device (e.g., desktop computer, laptop,smartphone, tablet, wearable device, server, etc.) may be configured toprovide outputs from multiple sources such as different applications,operating systems, widgets, or any other user interface (UI) element.For instance, an email application may output contents of an email, acalendar application may output a notification for an upcomingappointment, an operating system may output a notification for batterylevel, etc.

Even outputs from the same source may have varying contexts. In oneinstance, output from an email application may include text from severalauthors In another instance, output from a word-processing applicationmay include text having different font characteristics (e.g., fontstyle, size, bold, italic, color, capitalized, quoted, etc.) In yetanother instance, output from a screen-reader application may include acaption of a button and a value of a sliding bar. As a variation of thisinstance, the button may be positioned in a particular area of a display(e.g., top of display) and the sliding bar may be positioned at adifferent area (e.g., bottom of display). In still another instance,output from a stock-screening application may include a listing ofstocks that are associated with different degrees of market performanceor that are arranged according to some factor.

The context of the outputs may also depend on the status of the deviceor the source itself, among other possibilities. In one instance, adownload management application may output the percentage remaining fora file being downloaded in different ways (e.g., font characteristics,etc.) according to network conditions. In another instance, a sportsapplication may output sports results in a particular format based onthe version of the application on the device or the day of the week(e.g., Sunday games may have a special format, etc.). In yet anotherinstance, an image processing application may process images in adifferent manner depending on remaining battery power, and may output anotification when the processing is complete in different ways (e.g.,different colors, etc.) depending on the manner of processing.

Other scenarios are possible as well where outputs provided by thecomputing device have different contexts or sources. On one hand, for atleast some of the instances above, the contextual (and source)information associated with the outputs may be effectively conveyed to auser if the outputs are provided visually (e.g., using a display, etc.).For example, the contextual (and source) information may be transmittedto a user by adjusting colors, adjusting font characteristics, arrangingthe information, adjusting display brightness, etc. On the other hand,transmitting the contextual (and source) information to a user usingspeech output may involve additional speech processing, in accordancewith the present disclosure.

Within examples, methods and systems are provided for assigningdistinguishable voice characteristics to output speech according to asource or context of the output speech In one example, a device hereinmay provide synthetic speech having a particular voice for a firstapplication (e.g., email, etc.) and synthetic speech having anothervoice for a second application (e.g., calendar, etc.) in anotherexample, the device may provide speech having different voices foroutput from the same application. For instance, in a text-to-speechapplication, a pitch, speed, quality (e.g., harsh voice, soft voice,etc.), etc, of synthetic speech may be adjusted for text that is holdcompared to text that is italic, etc., even if the text is from the sameapplication. Other modifications are possible as well and are describedin greater detail within exemplary embodiments of the presentdisclosure. Further, within examples, methods and devices are providedfor selection of distinct voices from within a plurality of availablevoices. In some examples, the voices accessible to a device may belimited. For instance, a speech corpus may include recorded speech fromonly one or few speakers due to memory limitations. Accordingly, withinexamples, methods and systems are provided for generating additionalvoices based on morphing or transforming available voices.

Through this process, in some examples, a user of the computing devicemay perceive the source or context of generated speech withoutadditional output (e.g., additional speech specifying thesource/context, etc.) from the computing device. For instance, adjustingthe voice characteristics of generated speech output in accordance withthe present method may convey the identity of the application providingthe output without explicitly announcing the identity of the application(e.g., “you have an email” followed by the contents of the email, etc.),the source of the output, or the context of the output (e.g.,“capitalized text” followed by a pronunciation of the text, etc.).

Referring now to the figures, FIG. 1 illustrates a device 100, accordingto an example embodiment. The device 100 may include a display 102,applications 104 a and 104 b, an application programming interface (API)106, an operating system 108 for executing instructions to operatehardware 110 of the device 100, and an audio output apparatus 112.Although device 100 is illustrated in FIG. 1 as a smartphone, aspects ofthis disclosure are applicable to other computing devices such aspersonal computers, laptops, tablet computers, servers, wearabledevices, etc.

The display 102 may include a light emitting diode (LED) display, aliquid crystal display (LCD), a cathode ray tube (CRT) display, an e-inkscreen, and/or any other suitable device for presenting a graphical userinterface and/or visual information to the user of the device 100.Although illustrated in FIG. 1 that the display 102 is included in thedevice 100, in some examples, the display 102 may be implemented as anexternal display coupled to the device 100. For example, the display 102may be an external monitor or projection screen configured to displaythe visual information provided by the device 100.

Each of the applications 104 a and 104 b may include instructions thatwhen executed cause the device 100 to perform specific tasks orfunctions. The applications 104 a and 104 b may be native applications(i.e., installed by a manufacturer of the device 100 and/or amanufacturer of the operating system 108) or may be a third-partyapplication installed by a user of the device 100. A non-exhaustive listof example applications includes: a media player application thataccepts media files as inputs and generates corresponding video and/oraudio to output device(s) (e.g., the display 102, audio output apparatus112, etc.); an e-reader application which accepts electronic documents(e.g., books, magazines, etc.) as an input and presents the content ofthe documents via the display 102 or via the audio output apparatus 112;a feed reader that accepts feeds delivered over a network (e.g., RSSfeeds and/or feeds from social network sites) as inputs and presents thefeeds via the display 102 or the audio output apparatus 112; a mapapplication that displays a map via the display 102 or the audio outputapparatus 112; a note-taking application, a bookmarking application, aword processing application, spreadsheet application, and/orpresentation application that accepts specifically formatted files asinputs and presents them via the display 102 or the audio outputapparatus 112 for viewing and/or editing. Other example applications arepossible.

The device 100 may also include one or more APIs, such as the API 106.The API 106 may function as an interface between the operating system108 and the applications 104 a and 104 b. For example, the API 106 mayprovide the interface for receiving requests having a particular formatfrom the application 104 a and/or 104 b, and may manage provision of therequests to the operating system 108. Further, in some examples, the API106 may be configured to process requests that are directed toparticular functions of the device 100, such as operation of the display102 or the hardware 110. In other examples, the API 106 may beconfigured to process requests for any combination of functions of thedevice 100. In one example, the API 106 may include a text-to-speech(TTS) interface for receiving text from the applications 104 a-104 b andgenerating speech output that corresponds to the text (e.g., via theaudio output apparatus 112). Additionally or alternatively, thefunctions of the API 106 may be performed by the operating system 108.For example, the applications 104 a and/or 104 b may be configured tointerface directly with the operating system 108.

The operating system 108 may interact with and manage the display 102,the hardware 110, and the audio output apparatus 112 to provide servicesfor the applications 104 a and 104 b. For example, the application 104 amay request the operating system 108 to utilize the hardware 110 to scanfor wireless devices in an environment of the device 100.

The hardware 110 may include, for example, a central processing unit(CPU), a graphics processor (GPU), memory, a communication interface, apower unit, an input/output (I/O) interface, user input device(s), andoutput device(s). Components of hardware 110 may be controlled byinstructions contained in applications 104 a and 104 b, the API 106,and/or the operating system 108.

The central processing unit (CPU) may be operable to effectuate theoperation of the device 100 by executing instructions stored in memoryor disk storage. Such instructions may include the operating system 108and the applications 104 a and 104 b, for example. The CPU may, forexample, comprise a single or multi-core processor, an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate array(FPGA), and/or any other suitable circuitry.

The graphics processor may be operable to generate a video stream foroutput to the display 102 based on instructions and/or data receivedfrom the CPU. Additionally or alternatively, the graphics processor maybe operable to perform animations of virtual objects on the display 102.Thus, data structures corresponding to images to be displayed on thedisplay 102 may be stored to and read from the memory or disk storage bythe CPU. The CPU may convey such data structures to the graphicsprocessor via a standardized application programming interface (API)such as, for example, the API 106, Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT), theDirectX Video Acceleration API, the Video Decode Acceleration FrameworkAPI, or other suitable API.

The memory may include program memory and run-time memory. The memorymay, for example, comprise non-volatile memory, volatile memory, readonly memory (ROM), random access memory (RAM), flash memory, magneticstorage, and/or any other suitable memory. Program memory may storeinstructions executable by the CPU to effectuate operation of theoperating system 108 and the applications 104 a and 104 b. Runtimememory may store data generated or used during execution of theoperating system 108 or applications 104 a and 104 b.

The communication interface may be operable to allow wired (e.g.,Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), etc.) and/or wireless (e.g.,Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, near-field, Infrared (IR), etc.) connectivity betweenthe device 100 and one or more external devices. To that end, thecommunication interface may include a wireless receiver configured toreceive and/or manipulate wireless signals, and/or a wirelesstransmitter configured to transmit and/or manipulate wireless signals.In some examples, the wireless receiver and the wireless transmitter canbe implemented as a single circuit that performs both transmit andreceive functions. The communication interface may also include one ormore antennas (e.g., dipole, etc.) coupled to the various transmitter,receiver, and/or transceiver circuitry to broadcast and/or receive thewireless signals.

The input/output (I/O) interface may be operable to receive signals fromthe input device(s), and provide corresponding signals to the CPU and/orthe graphics processor. The input device(s) may include, for example, amouse, a touchpad, a motion sensor, a trackball, a voice recognitiondevice, a keyboard, or any other suitable input device which enables auser to interact with the device 100. The output devices may include,for example, the display 102, additional displays, the audio outputapparatus 112, and/or additional audio output apparatuses.

The audio output apparatus 112 may include any device suitable foroutputting sound content from the device 100. For example, the audiodevice 110 may include any combination of headphones, speakers, and/oroutput interfaces to external headphones/speakers.

In some examples, the device 100 may include more or less componentsthan those shown in FIG. 1. In one example, the device 100 may notinclude any or some of the applications 104 a, 104 b, and the API 106.In another example, the hardware 110 may not include a GPU. Otherexamples are possible as well.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a device 200, according to an exampleembodiment. The device 200 may be similar to the device 100. The device200 includes an input interface 202, an output interface 204, aprocessor 206, and data storage 208.

The device 200 may include a computing device such as a smart phone,digital assistant, digital electronic device, body-mounted computingdevice, personal computer, server, or any other computing deviceconfigured to execute program instructions 220 included in the datastorage 208 to operate the device 200. In some examples, the device 200may include additional components (not shown in FIG. 2), such as acamera, an antenna, or any other physical component configured, based onthe program instructions 220 executable by the processor 206, to operatethe device 200. The processor 206 included in the device 200 maycomprise one or more processors configured to execute the programinstructions 220 to operate the device 200.

The input interface 202 may include an audio input device such as amicrophone or any other component configured to provide an input signalcomprising audio content associated with speech to the processor 206.Additionally or alternatively, the input interface 202 may include anyother input device such as a keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, or any othercomponent configured to provide an input signal to the processor 206.

The output interface 204 may include an audio output apparatus, such asa speaker, headphone, or any other component configured to receive anoutput signal from the processor 206, and output speech sounds that mayindicate synthetic speech content based on the output signal.Additionally or alternatively, the output interface 204 may include adisplay such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), light emitting diode(LED) display, projection display, cathode ray tube (CRT) display, orany other display configured to provide visual output. Other outputdevices are possible as well (e.g., haptic output, etc.).

Additionally or alternatively, the input interface 202 and/or the outputinterface 204 may include network interface components configured to,respectively, receive and/or transmit the input signal and/or the outputsignal described above. For example, an external computing device (e.g.,server, etc.) may provide the input signal (e.g., speech content,linguistic content, etc.) to the input interface 202 via a communicationmedium such as Wi-Fi, WiMAX. Ethernet, Universal Serial Bus (USB), orany other wired or wireless medium. Similarly, for example, the externalcomputing device may receive the output signal from the output interface204 via the communication medium described above.

The data storage 208 may include one or more memories (e.g., flashmemory, Random Access Memory (RAM), solid state drive, disk drive, etc.)that include software components configured to provide the programinstructions 220 executable by the processor 206 to operate the device200. Although FIG. 2 shows the data storage 208 physically included inthe device 200, in some examples, the data storage 208 or somecomponents included thereon may be physically stored on a remotecomputing device. For example, some of the software components in thedata storage 208 may be stored on a remote server accessible to thedevice 200. As shown, the data storage 208 may include speech dataset210 and program instructions 220. In some examples, the data storage 208may optionally include a transform dataset 212.

The speech dataset 210 includes speech data associated with one or morevoices. In some examples, the speech dataset 210 may include a pluralityof speech sounds associated with voice characteristics of the one ormore voices. For example, the plurality of speech sounds may includerecorded speech segments from a speaker that has a particular voice.Further, in some examples, the plurality of speech sounds may alsoinclude recorded speech segments from another speaker that has anothervoice. Alternatively, for example, the speech segments may be syntheticspeech sounds that have particular voice characteristics of a particularvoice.

Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the speech dataset 210may include parametric representations (e.g., acoustic featureparameters) of the plurality of speech sounds. For example, theplurality of speech sounds may be represented in the speech dataset 210as samples of spectral and/or aperiodicity envelopes that describe theplurality of speech sounds.

The acoustic feature parameters, for example, may include aparameterization of spectral/aperiodicity aspects (e.g., spectralenvelope, aperiodicity envelope, etc.) for a speech signal that may beutilized to regenerate a synthetic pronunciation of the speech signalExample spectral parameters may include Cepstrum, Mel-Cepstrum,Generalized Mel-Cepstrum, Discrete Mel-Cepstrum, Log-Spectral-Envelope,Auto-Regressive-Filter, Line-Spectrum-Pairs (LSP),Line-Spectnim-Frequencies (LSF), Mel-LSP, Reflection Coefficients,Log-Area-Ratio Coefficients, deltas of these, delta-deltas of these, acombination of these, or any other type of spectral parameter. Exampleaperiodicity parameters may include Mel-Cepstrum,log-aperiodicity-envelope, filterbank-based quantization, maximum voicedfrequency, deltas of these, delta-deltas of these, a combination ofthese, or any other type of aperiodicity parameter. Otherparameterizations are possible as well such as maximum voiced frequencyor fundamental frequency parameterizations among other possibilities.

In some examples, the acoustic feature parameters described above may besampled at harmonic frequencies of the speech signal. For example, aspectral envelope of the speech signal (e.g., Mel-Cepstrum,Log-spectral-envelope, etc.) may be sampled at the harmonic frequenciesand/or any other frequencies (e.g., regular frequencies, irregularfrequencies, etc.) of the speech signal.

In some examples, where the speech dataset 210 includes a plurality ofspeech sounds for a given voice, the device 200 may be configured todetermine the acoustic feature parameters for such speech sounds.

In some examples, the plurality of speech sounds (or parameters thereof)in the speech dataset 210 are each assigned to a linguistic term or alinguistic class. The linguistic term (or linguistic class), forexample, may include various phonetic features such as phonemes, phones,diphones, triphones, etc.

A phoneme may be considered to be a smallest segment (or a smallsegment) of an utterance that encompasses a meaningful contrast withother segments of utterances. Thus, a word typically includes one ormore phonemes. For example, phonemes may be thought of as utterances ofletters, however, some phonemes may represent multiple letters. Anexample phonemic representation for the English language pronunciationof the word “cat” may be /k/ /ae/ /t/, including the phonemes/k/, /ae/,and /t/ from the English language. In another example, the phonemicrepresentation for the word “dog” in the English language may be /d//aw/ /g/, including the phonemes/d/, aw/, and /g/ from the Englishlanguage.

Different phonemic alphabets exist, and these alphabets may havedifferent textual representations for the various phonemes therein. Forexample, the letter “a” in the English language may be represented bythe phoneme /ae/ for the sound in “cat,” by the phoneme /ey/ for thesound in “ate.” and by the phoneme /ah/ for the sound in “beta.” Otherphonemic representations are possible. As an example, in the Englishlanguage, common phonemic alphabets may contain about 40 distinctphonemes. In some examples, a phone may correspond to a speech sound.For example, the letter “s” in the word “nods” may correspond to thephoneme /z/ which corresponds to the phone [s] or the phone [z]depending on a position of the word “nods” in a sentence or on apronunciation of a speaker of the word. In some examples, a sequence oftwo phonemes (e.g., /k/ /ae/) may be described as a diphone. In thisexample, a first half of the diphone may correspond to a first phonemeof the two phonemes (e.g., /k/), and a second half of the diphone maycorrespond to a second phoneme of the two phonemes (e.g., /ae/).Similarly, in some examples, a sequence of three phonemes may bedescribed as a triphone.

Additionally, in some examples, the plurality of speech sounds (orparameters thereof) in the speech dataset 210 may be associated withconcatenation features (e.g., linguistic classes, etc) such as prosodicfeatures, preceding and following phonemes, position of speech sound insyllable, position of syllable in word and/or phrase, position of wordin phrase, stress/accent/length features of current/preceding/followingsyllables, distance from stressed/accented syllable, length ofcurrent/preceding/following phrase, end tone of phrase, length of speechsound within the speech signal, etc. By way of example, a pronunciationof the phoneme /ae/ in the word “cat” may be different than acorresponding pronunciation of the phoneme /ae/ in the word “catapult.”

In some examples, where speech sounds of the speech dataset 210 areassociated with linguistic terms/classes, the device 200 may beconfigured to synthesize a speech signal by determining a hidden Markovmodel (HMF-M) chain that corresponds to at least some of the acousticfeature parameters associated with the speech sounds. For example, anHMM may model a system such as a Markov process with unobserved (i.e.,hidden) states. Each HMM state may be represented as a Gaussiandistribution, a von Mises distribution, or any other statisticaldistribution that characterizes statistical behavior of the state. Forexample, a statistical distribution may include the acoustic featureparameters of a phoneme that corresponds to a given speech sound of theplurality of speech sounds indicated by the speech dataset 210.Additionally, each state may also be associated with one or more statetransitions that specify a probability of making a transition from acurrent state to another state (e.g., based on concatenation features,etc.).

When applied to the device 200, in some examples, the combination of thestatistical distributions and the state transitions for each state maydefine a sequence of acoustic feature parameters that may be processedto generate a synthetic speech output.

The transform dataset 212 may include one or more voice conversiontransforms to transform speech sounds (or parameters thereof) having oneor more of the voices represented in the speech dataset 210 to speechsounds (or parameters) having one or more additional voices. To thatend, a transform may include any combination of filters, weightingfunctions, frequency-warping functions, or any other signal processingalgorithm to modify voice characteristics of a given voice representedin the speech dataset 210 to different voice characteristics of anothervoice not represented in the speech dataset 210. Through this process,for example, the device 200 may be configured to provide speech havingadditional voices (and associated voice characteristics) without storingspeech sounds (or parameters thereof) for the additional voices in thespeech dataset 210. In turn, for example, memory savings may be achievedfor the device 200 by storing the transforms in the transform dataset212 instead of storing additional speech sounds for such additionalvoices in the speech dataset 210.

In some examples, the transforms in the transform dataset 212 may bedetermined by the device 200 comparing a sample speech signal withspeech sounds (or parameters thereof) in the speech dataset 210 togenerate the transform dataset 212. For instance, the device 200 mayprompt a user to recite a training text sample, and may then determinethe transform dataset 212 by comparing voice characteristics of the userwith voice characteristics of speech sounds associated with one or morevoices represented in the speech dataset 210. In other examples, thetransforms in the transform dataset 212 may be computed by any otherdevice, and stored in the data storage 208 for use by the device 200.

The voice characteristics that vary between two voices may include vocaltract characteristics (e.g., vocal tract length, vocal tract shape,etc.), nasal cavity characteristics, and/or voicing characteristics,among other possibilities. The voicing characteristics, for example, maybe associated with a glottal formant or a spectral tilt. The glottalformat and/or the spectral tilt may pertain to differences in spectralenergy distribution between the two voices.

To compensate for differences in the vocal tract characteristics, insome examples, a transform may include a “warping” component. By way ofexample, a first speech sound of a first voice may have particularspectral features (e.g., maximums, minimums, etc.) at the frequencies:1450 Hz, 1600 Hz. and 1750 Hz. Similarly, in the example, a secondspeech sound of a second voice (generated based on a transform) may havecorresponding spectral features at the frequencies: 1455 Hz, 1595 Hz,and 1740 Hz. The difference in the example may be due to differencesbetween the vocal tract characteristics of the first voice and thesecond voice. Thus, for example, the “warping” component may associatethe various frequencies accordingly. Further, for example, to compensatefor differences in the nasal cavity characteristics (e.g., spectralnulls at high frequencies, etc.) and/or the voicing characteristics, thetransform may include a “weighting” component. In the example above,amplitudes of the acoustic feature parameters (e.g., spectral envelopes,aperiodicity envelopes, etc.) at a particular frequency (e.g., 1750 Hzfor the first voice and 1740 Hz for the second voice, etc.) may differby a factor, and thus the “weighting” component may compensate for suchdifference. Accordingly, in some examples, the transform may includeboth the “warping” and the “weighting” components. However, othertransforms are possible as well depending on the voice conversionprocess utilized to generate the transforms in the transform dataset212.

In some examples, a given transform of the transform dataset 212 may beconfigured to adjust voice characteristics of only one voice of thevoice(s) represented in the speech dataset 210. In other examples, thegiven transform may be alternatively configured to adjust voicecharacteristics of more than one voice of the voices represented in thespeech dataset 210.

The program instructions 220 comprise various software componentsincluding a voice assignment unit 224 and a speech synthesis unit 228.In some examples, the program instructions 220 may optionally include avoice generation unit 222 and a voice selection unit 226. The varioussoftware components 222-228 may be implemented, for example, as anapplication programming interface (API), dynamically-linked library(DLL), or any other software implementation suitable for providing theprogram instructions 220 to the processor 206.

The voice generation unit 222 may be configured to determine additionalvoices other than the voice(s) represented in the speech dataset 210.For example, in line with the description of the transform dataset 212,the voice generation unit 222 may utilize the transform dataset 212 todetermine speech sounds/parameters that have voice characteristicsdifferent from the voice characteristics of speech sounds/parameters ofthe one or more voices represented in the speech dataset 210.

Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the voice generationunit 222 may determine additional voices by applying voice morphingparameters to the voice(s) represented the speech dataset 210 and/or thevoices determined based on the transform dataset 212. The morphingparameters, for example, may adjust one or more of a tonality, duration,frequency, or quality of a given voice. Tonality modifications, forexample, may include adjusting a pitch (e.g., average pitch), pitchcontour variance (e.g., melody), or any other (e.g., random) pitchvariations of speech sounds associated with a voice. Durationmodifications, for example, may include adjusting a speaking rate of oneor more speech sounds associated with a voice. Frequency warpingmodifications, for example, may include linear frequency scaling tosimulate vocal tract length changes. Voice quality modifications, forexample, may include adjusting harshness of a voice, softness of avoice, creakiness of a voice, or diplophonia of a voice, among otherpossibilities. Other voice morphing parameters are possible as well.Thus, by applying different voice morphing parameters to existing (ortransformed) voices, the voice generation unit 222 may generateadditional voices for the device 200 without storing speech sounds forthese additional voices, for example.

The voice assignment unit 224 may be configured to assign a set ofdistinct voices to respective sources of speech outputs that the device200 is configured to provide. Referring back to FIG. 1 by way ofexample, the plurality of sources may include the application 104 a andthe application 104 b. Thus, for instance, by assigning a first voice toapplication 104 a and a second voice to application 104 b, a user of thedevice 200 may distinguish between speech outputs from each of theseapplications by perceiving the different voice characteristics of thegenerated speech. The set of distinct voices may include voicesrepresented in the speech dataset 210 and/or any of the voices generatedby the voice generation unit 222 (e.g., based on the transform dataset212 and/or voice morphing parameters, etc.). In some examples, the voiceassignment unit 224 may be configured to assign more than one of the setof distinct voices to the same source. For instance, the application 104a may provide text having different font characteristics for speechsynthesis, and the voice assignment unit 224 may assign a first voice tobold text and a second voice to italicized text, etc. In other examples,the voice assignment unit 224 may assign only one distinct voice foreach respective source.

The voice selection unit 226 may be configured to select the set ofdistinct voices described in the voice assignment unit 224, from withinthe plurality of voices represented in the speech dataset 210 and/or theadditional voices generated by the voice generation unit 222. In linewith the discussion above, the plurality of voices available to thedevice 200 for assignment to different sources of speech output mayinclude many voices depending on the number of voices of the speechdataset 210, the number of transforms of the transform dataset 212, andthe number of voice morphing parameters available to the voicegeneration unit 222. However, in some examples, some of the availablevoices may be similar, and thus less suitable for distinguishing thedifferent sources (or contexts) of speech outputs provided by the device200. In turn, for example, the voice selection unit 226 may beconfigured to select, from within the available voices, a subset havingvoice characteristics that have a threshold amount of difference invoice characteristics compared to one another. Through this process, forexample, a listener may distinguish between a relatively smaller numberof voices to perceive the context (or source) of the speech output,thereby reducing the cognitive strain of the listener.

Accordingly, in some examples, the voice selection unit 226 may beconfigured to determine a similarity metric characterizing similaritybetween the plurality of available voices. The similarity metric maycharacterize the similarity between voice characteristics of speechsounds having a first voice and voice characteristics of speech soundshaving a second voice.

In some examples, the similarity metric may be based on a subjectivecomparison between speech sounds having a first voice and speech soundshaving a second voice. For instance, similarity mean-of-opinion scores(MOS) may be based on a test where listeners compare a speech samplehaving voice characteristics of the first voice with a similar speechsample having voice characteristics of the second voice. The listeners,for example, may rate their perception of similarity between the twospeech samples and a mean of the ratings (e.g., scores) may be utilizedto determine the similarity metric. For example, the similarity MOSscores may be stored in the data storage 208 (e.g., within the speechdataset 210, within the transform dataset 212, within any other dataset,etc.) or in any other remote memory, and the voice selection unit 226may access the stored similarity MOS scores to determine the similaritymetric. Other subjective comparisons are possible as well.

Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the similarity metricmay be based on an objective comparison between the plurality ofavailable voices In one example, the voice selection unit 226 maycompare acoustic feature parameters of voices represented in the speechdataset 210 (and/or voices generated by the voice generation unit 222).In another example, the voice selection unit 226 may compare transformsin the transform dataset 212 to determine a measure of similarity (i.e.,the similarity metric) between transformed voices using the differenttransforms in the transform dataset 212. In both cases, variouscomparison algorithms are possible, such as distance measurementalgorithms among other possibilities. For instance, the voice selectionunit 226 may determine differences between respective “warping” and/orrespective “weighting” components of different transforms in thetransform dataset 212. Other algorithms are possible as well fordetermining the similarity metric.

Accordingly, the voice selection unit 226 may select the set of distinctvoices from within the plurality of available voices, where thesimilarity metric indicates that similarity between the set of distinctvoices is less than a threshold. The selected set of distinct voices maythen be utilized by the voice assignment unit 224 for assignment to theplurality of sources of speech output that the device 200 is configuredto provide.

Further, in some examples, the voice selection unit 226 may furtherreduce the number of voices in the set of distinct voices by determininga naturalness metric and/or an intelligibility metric.

The naturalness metric may characterize acoustic transitions betweenspeech segments of a voice that are included in a speech output. By wayof example, the device 200 may generate synthetic speech for the word“dog” by combining speech sounds for the phonemes /d/, /aw/, and /g/. Inthis example, the speech sounds for the three phonemes may be obtainedby parsing recorded speech samples where the three phonemes are used inother words, such as “day,” “bronze,” and “bag.” Thus, for example,combining the speech sounds may have a high level of naturalness if thetransitions in characteristics such as pitch, duration, pauses, etc.,between the parsed samples are lower than a threshold.

The intelligibility metric may characterize cognitive perception ofspeech sounds having a given voice. Intelligibility may be affected byclarity, explicitness, lucidity, comprehensibility, perspicuity, andprecision of the generated speech. For instance, speech having a highlevel of intelligibility may allow a listener to correctly perceive theintended words recited by the generated speech. By way of example, thedevice 200 may be configured to generate speech for the words “cat” and“cart.” In this example, if the generated speech has a low level ofintelligibility, the listener may confuse the two words or may perceivean entirely different word than the two words intended by the generatedspeech.

In some examples, the naturalness metric and/or the intelligibilitymetric may be based on subjective tests. For example, naturalness MOSscores and/or intelligibility MOS scores may be provided similarly tothe similarity MOS scores. Other subjective tests are possible as wellsuch as the semantically unpredictable sentences (SUS) test forintelligibility and/or naturalness among other possibilities.

In other examples, the naturalness metric and/or the intelligibilitymetrics may be determined based on objective tests. As an example for anobjective test for intelligibility, the acoustic feature parameters ofspeech sounds in the speech dataset 210 may include a noiserepresentation characterizing aspirates and/or fricatives in the speechsounds. An aspirate may be associated with a characteristic of anexhalation of at least a threshold amount of breath. A fricative may beassociated with a characteristic of airflow between two or more vocaltract articulators.

In some examples, speech sounds may include articulation of variousspeech sounds that involve exhalation of breath. Such articulation maybe described as aspiration and/or frication, and may cause noise in thespeech signal which may affect the intelligibility of the speech signal.An example aspirate may correspond to the pronunciation of the letter“p” in the word “pie.” During articulation of such aspirate, at least athreshold amount of breath may be exhaled by a speaker pronouncing theword “pie.” In turn, an audio recording of the pronunciation of thespeaker may include breathing noise due to the exhalation.

Further, in some examples, speech sounds may include a fricative that isassociated with airflow between two or more vocal tract articulators. Anon-exhaustive list of example vocal tract articulators may include atongue, lips, teeth, gums, palate, etc. Noise due to such fricativespeech may also be characterized in the noise representation, to enhancequality of synthesized speech. For example, breathing noise due toairflow between a lip and teeth may be different from breathing noisedue to airflow between a tongue and teeth.

Further, for example, the fricative speech sounds may be included invoiced speech and/or unvoiced speech. Voicing is a term used inphonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds. A voiced speechsound may be articulated by vibration of vocal cords of a speaker. Forexample, a pronunciation of the letter “z” in the word “zebra”corresponds to the voiced phone [z], and the articulation thereof maycause the vocal cords to vibrate at a particular pitch frequency (e.g.,fundamental frequency, etc.). Further, for example, a pronunciation ofthe letter “s” in the word “sing” corresponds to the voiceless(unvoiced) phone [s], and the articulation thereof may not cause thevocal cords to vibrate similarly.

Thus, in some examples, the voice selection unit 226 may determine theintelligibility metric by analyzing the acoustic feature parameters ofspeech sounds associated with different voices to determine the noiserepresentations for the different voices. In turn, for example, thevoice selection unit 226 may determine the intelligibility metric bycomparing noise representations associated with different voices, atleast for such speech sounds (e.g., aspirates, fricatives, etc.).Similarly, in some examples, the naturalness of a speech sound may bedetermined based on the acoustic feature parameters of the speech sound.

Thus, in some examples, the voice selection unit 226 may utilize thenaturalness metric and/or the intelligibility metric to further reducethe number of voices in the set of distinct voices used by the voiceassignment unit 224. In an example scenario, the voice selection unit226 may first select voices that have a naturalness metric indicatingnaturalness that is greater than a threshold naturalness (e.g., MOSscore greater than 70%, etc.). Next, in the scenario, the voiceselection unit 226 may then filter out, from within the selectedthreshold naturalness voices, voices that have an intelligibility metricindicating intelligibility that is greater than a thresholdintelligibility (e.g., MOS score greater than 60%, etc.). Next, in thescenario, the voice selection unit 226 may then select, from within thethreshold natural and threshold intelligible voices, the set of distinctvoices that have a similarity metric indicating similarity that is lessthan a threshold similarity (e.g., MOS score less than 30%, etc.). Otherscenarios and threshold values are possible as well.

In some examples, analysis data described above for the similaritymetric, the naturalness metric, and/or the intelligibility metric may bestored in the data storage 208 or other memory accessible to the device200. In other examples, the analysis data may be determined by the voiceselection unit 226 analyzing speech sounds (or parameters thereof)represented in the speech dataset 210, transform dataset 212, and/orprovided by the voice generation unit 222.

The speech synthesis unit 228 may be configured to receive a request forprovision of speech content. The request, for example, may be receivedvia the input interface 202 or may be received from an application ofthe device 200 (not shown) similar to the applications 104 a and 104 bof the device 100, among other possibilities. In turn, the speechsynthesis unit 228 may be configured to responsively generate speech(e.g., via the output interface 104, etc.) that has particular voicecharacteristics of a particular voice assigned to the source of therequested speech output by the voice assignment unit 224.

In some examples, the speech synthesis unit 228 may utilize a vocoder toprovide modified speech sounds of the speech dataset 210 (or soundsgenerated by the voice generation unit 222) according to the particularvoice characteristics of the assigned particular voice. Example vocodersthat may be utilized by the speech synthesis unit 128 may includesinusoidal vocoders (e.g., AhoCoder, Harmonic-plus-Noise Model (HNM)vocoder, Sinusoidal Transform Codec (STC), etc.) and/or non-sinusoidalvocoders (e.g., STRAIGHT, etc.).

It is noted that functional blocks of FIG. 2 are illustrated forconvenience in description. In some embodiments, the device 200 may beimplemented using more or less components configured to perform thefunctionalities described above. For example, the voice generation unit222, the voice assignment unit 224, the voice selection unit 126, and/orthe speech synthesis unit 228 may be implemented as one, two, or moresoftware components. Further, in some examples, components of the device200 may be physically implemented in one or more computing devicesaccording to various applications of the device 200. For example, thespeech dataset 210 may be included in a remote computing device (e.g.,server) accessible by the device 200. Other configurations are possibleas well.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a text-to-speech synthesis system 300,according to an example embodiment. The system 300 shown in FIG. 3presents an embodiment of a system that could be used with the devices100 and/or 200, for example. As shown, the system 300 includes a speechdataset 310, a transform dataset 312, and a speech synthesis unit 328that are similar, respectively, to the speech dataset 210, the transformdataset 212, and the speech synthesis unit 228 of the device 200.However, in some examples, the system 300 may include more or fewercomponents than those shown. For instance, the system 300 mayalternatively not include the transform dataset 312.

Further, as shown, the speech synthesis unit 328 may be configured toreceive inputs including text 302, voice ID 304, transform ID 306, andmorphing parameters 308. However, in some examples, the system 300 mayreceive fewer or additional inputs than those shown. For instance, wherethe transform dataset 312 is not included in the system 300 or where thesystem 300 does not support the morphing parameters 308, the system 300may alternatively not include the transform II) 306 or the morphingparameters 308. Further, as shown, the TTS system 300 provides asynthetic speech signal 330.

The text 302 may include any text provided by a source of informationsuch as a particular application (e.g., email application, calendarapplication, application 104 a of the device 100, etc.), an operatingsystem (e.g., operating system 108 of the device 100, etc.), aparticular area within a display of a device (e.g., an area within avisual user interface, etc.), or a particular graphical user interface(GUI) object (e.g., text box, button, sliding bar, etc.), among otherpossibilities.

The voice ID 304 may include any identification code for identifyingspeech sounds represented in the speech dataset 310 that have particularvoice characteristics of a particular voice. For example, the voice ID304 may be provided to the speech synthesis 328 by the voice assignmentunit 224 of the device 200 to specify the particular voice in the speechdataset 310 that the speech synthesis unit 328 should use to provide theoutput speech 330.

The transform ID 306 may include any identification code (or noidentification code) for a particular transform in the transform dataset312. Similarly to the voice ID 304, the transform ID 306 may be providedby the voice assignment unit 224.

The morphing parameters 308 may include morphing parameters generated bythe voice generation unit 222 of the device 200 and assigned to thesource of the text 302 by the voice assignment unit 224.

The output speech 330 may include a pronunciation of the text 302 thathas the particular voice characteristics of a particular voice accordingto the voice ID 304, the transform ID) 306, and/or the morphingparameters 308.

As an example scenario for the operation of the system 300, referringback to FIG. 2, the device 200 may identify the source of the text 302,and provide the text 302 to the speech synthesis unit 328. Next, thevoice assignment unit 224 may assign the particular voicecharacteristics of a particular voice to the identified source of thetext 302. In one instance, if the source is assigned a voice from withinthe speech dataset 310, the voice assignment unit 224 may provide thevoice ID 304 of the particular voice. In another instance, where theassigned voice is a transformed voice, the voice assignment unit 224 mayprovide the transform ID 306 in addition to the voice II) 304 to selecta particular transform from within the transform dataset 312. In yetanother instance, where the assigned voice is a morphed voice based on avoice in the speech dataset 310, the voice assignment unit 224 mayprovide the morphing parameters 308 in addition to the voice ID 304. Instill another example, where the assigned voice is a morphed voice basedon a transformed voice, the voice assignment unit 224 may provide thevoice ID 304, the transform ID 306, and the morphing parameters 308.

Next, in the scenario, the speech synthesis unit may then generate thespeech signal 330 that is a pronunciation of the text 302 havingparticular voice characteristics of the particular voice specifiedaccording to the voice ID 304, the transform ID 306, and/or the morphingparameters 308. For instance, the speech signal 330 may be provided tothe output interface 204 (e.g., speaker) that provides the audiopronunciation of the text 302 having the particular voicecharacteristics of the particular voice. Other scenarios are possible aswell.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a method 400, according to an exampleembodiment. Method 400 shown in FIG. 4 presents an embodiment of amethod that could be used with the devices 100, 200, and/or the system300, for example. Method 400 may include one or more operations,functions, or actions as illustrated by one or more of blocks 402-410.Although the blocks are illustrated in a sequential order, these blocksmay in some instances be performed in parallel, and/or in a differentorder than those described herein. Also, the various blocks may becombined into fewer blocks, divided into additional blocks, and/orremoved based upon the desired implementation.

In addition, for the method 400 and other processes and methodsdisclosed herein, the flowchart shows functionality and operation of onepossible implementation of present embodiments. In this regard, eachblock may represent a module, a segment, a portion of a manufacturing oroperation process, or a portion of program code, which includes one ormore instructions executable by a processor for implementing specificlogical functions or steps in the process. The program code may bestored on any type of computer readable medium, for example, such as astorage device including a disk or hard drive. The computer readablemedium may include non-transitory computer readable medium, for example,such as computer-readable media that stores data for short periods oftime like register memory, processor cache and Random Access Memory(RAM). The computer readable medium may also include non-transitorymedia, such as secondary or persistent long term storage, like read onlymemory (ROM), optical or magnetic disks, compact-disc read only memory(CD-ROM), for example. The computer readable media may also be any othervolatile or non-volatile storage systems. The computer readable mediummay be considered a computer readable storage medium, for example, or atangible storage device.

In some examples, for the method 400 and other processes and methodsdisclosed herein, each block may represent circuitry that is wired toperform the specific logical functions in the process.

At block 402, the method 400 involves identifying a plurality of sourcesfor outputs that a device is configured to provide. The plurality ofsources, for example, may include applications in the device (e.g.,applications 104 a and 104 b of the device 100, etc.), an operatingsystem of the device (e.g., operating system 108 of the device 100,etc.), areas within a display of the device (e.g., notification area,center area, etc.), I/O components of the device (e.g., physical button,etc.), or graphical user interface (GUI) objects in a display of thedevice (e.g., text box, button, etc.), among other possibilities.

In some examples, the method 400 may also involve identifying contextsof information provided by one or more of the plurality of sources. Inone instance, a context may be indicative of font characteristics oftext associated with a particular source (e.g., font size, color, boldsetting, italics setting, capitalization, etc.). In another instance,the context may be indicative of a type of content in the text. Forexample, the text may include an email address, a title, a body, aconclusion, among other possibilities. In yet another instance, thecontext may be indicative of an author of the text (e.g., messagesbetween two or more persons, summary authored by one person and bodyauthored by another person, etc.). In still another instance, thecontext may be indicative of a type of a particular source (e.g.,sliding bar, button, text box, image editing type of application, socialnetwork type of application, etc.) in still another instance, thecontext may be indicative of a status of the particular source or astatus of the device (e.g., battery level of device, network conditions,empty text box, filled text box, etc.). In still another instance, thecontext may be indicative of a location of the source (e.g., center ofscreen, side of device, back of device, etc.). Other contexts arepossible as well in line with the discussion above.

At block 404, the method 400 involves assigning a set of distinct voicesto respective sources of the plurality of sources. A voice assigned toone source is characterized by voice characteristics different fromvoice characteristics of other voices assigned to other sources.

In some examples, where a particular source may provide speech outputshaving more than one context, the method 400 may also involvedetermining a context of the requested speech output, and assigning atleast two voices of the set of distinct voices to the particular source.By way of example, a calendar application may have a first voiceassigned for notifications of upcoming appointments within one hour, asecond voice (e.g., morphed voice with a lower pitch, etc.) fornotifications of upcoming appointments within one week, etc.

In some examples, the method 400 may also involve obtaining voice dataassociated with a plurality of voices. For instance, the voice data mayinclude speech sounds (or parameters thereof) similar to the speechsounds in the speech dataset 210, transforms similar to transforms inthe transform dataset 212, or morphing parameters similar to themorphing parameters 308 of the system 300. In these examples, the method400 may also involve determining a similarity metric characterizingsimilarity between the plurality of voices based on the voice data. Inone instance, the voice data may include subjective similaritycomparison data (e.g., MOS, etc.) in line with the discussion of thevoice selection unit 226. In another instance, a device of the method400 may compare speech sounds (or parameters thereof) of a first voicewith speech sounds (or parameters thereof) of a second voice (e.g.,original voice, transformed voice, morphed voice, etc.) in line with thediscussion of the voice selection unit 226 of the device 200. In bothinstances, the method 400 may determine the similarity metric such as aranking of respective voice pairs that are ordered according to a degreeof similarity between the voice pairs In these examples, the method 400may also involve selecting the set of distinct voices of the block 404from within the plurality of voices based on the similarity metricindicating similarity between the set of distinct voices being less thana threshold. For instance, a device of the method 400 may select a smallor minimal number of the most distinct voices for inclusion in the setof distinct voices of the block 404.

In some examples, the method 400 may also involve determining a quantityof the plurality of sources (and/or contexts thereof) identified atblock 402, and determining the threshold for the similarity between theset of distinct voices based on the quantity. For instance, where theuser interface includes only includes four contexts, the threshold maybe determined such that the set of distinct voices includes the fourmost dissimilar voices from within the plurality of voices.

Further, in some examples, the selection of the set of distinct voicesof block 404 may be based also on a naturalness metric and/or anintelligibility metric in line with the description of the voiceselection unit 226 of the device 200. Thus, in some examples, the method400 may also involve determining a naturalness metric characterizingacoustic transitions between speech sounds having a given voice of theplurality of voices based on the voice data, and selecting the set ofdistinct voices based also on the naturalness metric indicatingnaturalness of the set of distinct voices being greater than a giventhreshold. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the method400 may also involve determining an intelligibility metriccharacterizing cognitive perception of speech sounds having the givenvoice based on the voice data, and selecting the set of distinct voicesbased also on the intelligibility metric indicating intelligibility ofthe set of distinct voices being greater than a given threshold.

In line with the description of the voice generation unit 222 of thedevice 200, in some examples, the method 400 may also involvedetermining morphing parameters associated with one or more of atonality, duration, frequency, or quality of a given voice. Forinstance, the voice data may indicate voice characteristics of one ormore voices (e.g., speech dataset 210 of the device 200, etc.). Thus, inthese examples, the method 400 may involve determining one or moreadditional voices based on the morphing parameters, and determining theplurality of voices to include the one or more additional voices. Inturn, for instance, selecting the set of distinct voices may be fromwithin the determined plurality of voices that includes the one or morevoices indicated in the voice data as well as the one or more additionalvoices determined based on the morphing parameters.

Similarly to the discussion of the voice generation unit 222 of thedevice 200, in some examples, the method 400 may also involve receivingone or more transforms (e.g., transform dataset 212 of the device 200).A given transform, for instance, may be configured to associate a firstvoice of the one or more voices with a second voice other than the oneor more voices. Thus, in these examples, the method 400 may also involvedetermining one or more additional voices based on the one or moretransforms, and determining the plurality of voices to include the oneor more additional voices.

At block 406, the method 400 involves receiving a request for speechoutput. In one instance, the request may be based on an input (e.g.,user input requesting an output of an application, etc.). In anotherinstance, the request may be received from an application and/or anyother source (e.g., operating system, etc.) in the device. For example,a weather application may request the device to provide the speechoutput notifying a user that a weather update was received.

At block 408, the method 400 involves selecting a particular source,from within the plurality of sources, which is associated with therequested speech output. For instance, the device may identify aparticular application (e.g., calendar application, etc.) that isconfigured to provide information associated with the speech outputrequested at block 406. Additionally or alternatively, in some examples,the method 400 may also involve selecting a particular context for therequested speech output, in line with the discussion above.

At block 410, the method 400 involves generating, for the requestedspeech output, speech having particular voice characteristics of aparticular voice assigned to the particular source. By way of example,the device may be configured to provide a synthetic speech pronunciationof the time of day based on information from a clock application (i.e.,the particular source). In this example, the device may generate thespeech output with a first voice if the time of day is in the morninghours (i.e., first context), and the speech output with a second voiceif the time of day is in the afternoon hours (i.e., second context)Other examples are possible as well.

FIG. 5A illustrates a user interface (UI) 500, according to an exampleembodiment. FIG. 5B is a block diagram illustrating various areas of theuser interface 500 of FIG. 5A The UI 500 is an example UI that can beused with the devices 100, 200, the system 300, and/or the method 400.As shown, the UI 500 includes a notification area 522, a time displayarea 524, a slider area 526, a button area 528, a calendar area 530, anda browsing area 532. However, other areas are possible as well inaccordance with the present disclosure.

As shown, the notification area 522 includes one or more sources ofinformation for notifications such as battery level 502. The timedisplay area 524 includes information such as a time 504 a, a day 504 b,and an upcoming alarm 504 c. The slider area 526 includes a slider bar506. The button area 528 includes several buttons exemplified by buttons508 a, 508 b, and 508 c. The calendar area 530 includes an item title510 a and item details 510 b. The browsing area 532 includes browsingbuttons 512 a-512 c. It is noted that the various contents of the areas522-532 are for exemplary purposes only. Other sources/informationcontexts are possible as well in line with the discussion above.

In some examples, the UI 500 may be displayed on a display of a devicesuch as the display 102 of the device 100. However, in other examples,the UI 500 may include sources of information from more than onecomponent of a device. For instance, the browsing area 532 may beimplemented as physical inputs (e.g., buttons) that are independent fromthe display of the device, and the areas 522-530 may be visuallydisplayed on the display. Other configurations are possible as well.

FIGS. 5A-5B illustrate various scenarios for a speech-based userinterface in accordance with the present method.

In one scenario, a device of the UI 500 may be operating in a hands-freemode. In this scenario, the UI 500 may provide various speech outputsfrom various sources of the device with a distinct voice rather thannarrate the source of the speech output. For instance, rather thangenerating speech that says “from the calendar application: you have anupcoming appointment titled,” along with a pronunciation of the itemtitle 510 a, the device may alternatively generate the pronunciation ofthe item title 510 a with a distinct voice such that the user mayrecognize the source of the item title 510 a as the calendar applicationwithout narrating the source. As a variation of the scenario, the deviceof the UI 500 may generate speech with different voices according totime remaining for the appointment. For instance, the device may parsethe item details 510 b to determine the time remaining, and may adjust aparticular voice characteristic (e.g., tonality, pitch, duration,harshness, etc.) to convey the context (i.e., time remaining) to theuser without particularly narrating the time remaining. Thus, thepresent method allows transmission of context information to a user ofthe UI 500 by assigning distinct voices to various contexts of theinformation associated with the generated speech output.

In another scenario, a device of the UI 500 may be operating in amulti-modal mode where speech output is generated concurrently withanother type of output (e.g., haptic, visual, etc.). For instance, inthe scenario, the slider bar 506 may adjust brightness of the UI 500.Thus, for instance, a user may adjust the slider bar 506 and visuallyinspect the change in brightness as well as receive a speech output thatspecifies the brightness percentage. By assigning a distinct voice tothe slider bar 506 the user may perceive that the percentage indicatedin the generated speech is the brightness percentage and not thepercentage of battery power remaining (e.g., battery level 502) withoutthe device expressly narrating “the brightness level is xx %,” etc.

In yet another scenario, a device of the UI 500 may be operating in anaccessibility mode. For instance, a user of the device may be visuallyimpaired or may request speech outputs (e.g., driver of a car, etc.) tocommunicate with the device. In this scenario, the device of the UI 500may assign a distinct voice to each of the areas 522-532. In turn, forinstance, the user may perceive the source/context of speech outputssuch as notifications from the notification area 522, or a recitation ofthe caption of button 508 b, or a location of the slider bar 506, etc.,without an express narration of the source/context. For instance, theuser may select the button 508 a, and the device may generate speechpronouncing “Caption1” with a distinct voice, rather than “this is thebutton area, you selected a button having Caption 1.” The context/sourceinformation in this instance may be perceived by the user associatingthe distinct voice with a particular context/source. Other scenarios arepossible as well in accordance with the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 depicts an example computer-readable medium configured accordingto at least some embodiments described herein. In example embodiments,the example system can include one or more processors, one or more formsof memory, one or more input devices/interfaces, one or more outputdevices/interfaces, and machine readable instructions that when executedby the one or more processors cause the system to carry out the variousfunctions tasks, capabilities, etc., described above.

As noted above, in some embodiments, the disclosed techniques (e.g.method 400) can be implemented by computer program instructions encodedon a computer readable storage media in a machine-readable format, or onother media or articles of manufacture (e.g., the applications 104 a,104 b, the API 106, the OS 108, the program instructions 220, or thespeech synthesis unit 328). FIG. 6 is a schematic illustrating aconceptual partial view of an example computer program product thatincludes a computer program for executing a computer process on acomputing device, arranged according to at least some embodimentsdisclosed herein.

In one embodiment, the example computer program product 600 is providedusing a signal bearing medium 602. The signal bearing medium 602 mayinclude one or more programming instructions 604 that, when executed byone or more processors may provide functionality or portions of thefunctionality described above with respect to FIGS. 1-5. In someexamples, the signal bearing medium 602 can be a computer-readablemedium 606, such as, but not limited to, a hard disk drive, a CompactDisc (CD), a Digital Video Disk (DVD), a digital tape, memory, etc. Insome implementations, the signal bearing medium 602 can be a computerrecordable medium 608, such as, but not limited to, memory, read/write(R/W) CDs, R/W DVDs, etc. In some implementations, the signal bearingmedium 602 can be a communication medium 610 (e.g., a fiber optic cable,a waveguide, a wired communications link, etc.) Thus, for example, thesignal bearing medium 602 can be conveyed by a wireless form of thecommunications medium 610.

The one or more programming instructions 604 can be, for example,computer executable and/or logic implemented instructions. In someexamples, a computing device, such as the processor-equipped devices 100and/or 200, may be configured to provide various operations, functions,or actions in response to the programming instructions 604 conveyed tothe computing device by one or more of the computer readable medium 606,the computer recordable medium 608, and/or the communications medium610. In other examples, the computing device can be an external devicein communication with a device such as the devices 100 and/or 200.

The computer readable medium 606 can also be distributed among multipledata storage elements, which could be remotely located from each other.The computing device that executes some or all of the storedinstructions could be an external computer or a mobile computingplatform, such as a smartphone, tablet device, personal computer,wearable device, etc. Alternatively, the computing device that executessome or all of the stored instructions could be remotely locatedcomputer system, such as a server. For example, the computer programproduct 600 can implement the functionalities discussed in thedescription of FIGS. 1-5.

It should be understood that arrangements described herein are forpurposes of example only. As such, those skilled in the art willappreciate that other arrangements and other elements (e.g. machines,interfaces, functions, orders, and groupings of functions, etc.) can beused instead, and some elements may be omitted altogether according tothe desired results. Further, many of the elements that are describedare functional entities that may be implemented as discrete ordistributed components or in conjunction with other components, in anysuitable combination and location, or other structural elementsdescribed as independent structures may be combined.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purposes ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopebeing indicated by the following claims, along with the full scope ofequivalents to which such claims are entitled. It is also to beunderstood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose ofdescribing particular embodiments only, and is not intended to belimiting.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, at dataprocessing hardware, a sample speech segment having a first distinctvoice associated with a particular speaker; generating, by the dataprocessing hardware, using the sample speech segment, a first set ofvoice characteristics characterizing the first distinct voice associatedwith the particular speaker, assigning, by the data processing hardware,the first distinct voice to a first application; receiving, at the dataprocessing hardware, a user input indication requesting information fromthe first application; receiving, at the data processing hardware, fromthe first application, a textual representation of the informationrequested by the user input indication; generating, by the dataprocessing hardware, using the first set of voice characteristicscharacterizing the first distinct voice associated with the particularspeaker assigned to the first application, synthesized speech from thetextual representation of the information, the synthesized speech havingthe first distinct voice associated with the particular speaker; andproviding, by the data processing hardware, the synthesized speech foroutput.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein: the first applicationcomprises a navigation application; and the requested information fromthe first application comprises driving directions.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first set of voice characteristics comprise atleast one of tonality, duration, pitch, or harshness parameters.
 4. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the first set of voice characteristicscomprise at least one of vocal tract characteristics, nasal cavitycharacteristics, or voicing characteristics.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein the first set of voice characteristics comprises a set ofacoustic feature parameters.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the firstset of voice characteristics comprises a set of transforms.
 7. Themethod of claim 1, wherein receiving the user input indication comprisesreceiving a speech input spoken by the user, the speech input capturedby an audio input device in communication with the data processinghardware.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein providing the synthesizedspeech for output comprises providing the synthesized speech to an audiooutput device in communication with the data processing hardware, theaudio output device configured to audibly output the synthesized speech.9. The method of claim 1, wherein the data processing hardware resideson a computing device associated with the user.
 10. The method of claim1, further comprising, prior to receiving the sample speech segment:prompting, by the data processing hardware, the particular speaker torecite a training text sample, wherein the sample speech segmentcorresponds to the particular speaker reciting the training text sample.11. A system comprising: data processing hardware; and memory hardwarein communication with the data processing hardware and storinginstructions that when executed on the data processing hardware causethe data processing hardware to perform operations comprising: receivinga sample speech segment having a first distinct voice associated with aparticular speaker, generating, using the sample speech segment, a firstset of voice characteristics characterizing the first distinct voiceassociated with the particular speaker; assigning the first distinctvoice to a first application, receiving a user input indicationrequesting information from the first application; receiving, from thefirst application, a textual representation of the information requestedby the user input indication; generating, using the first set of voicecharacteristics characterizing the first distinct voice associated withthe particular speaker assigned to the first application, synthesizedspeech from the textual representation of the information, thesynthesized speech having the first distinct voice associated with theparticular speaker; and providing the synthesized speech for output. 12.The system of claim 11, wherein: the first application comprises anavigation application; and the requested information from the firstapplication comprises driving directions.
 13. The system of claim 11,wherein the first set of voice characteristics comprise at least one oftonality, duration, pitch, or harshness parameters.
 14. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the first set of voice characteristics comprise atleast one of vocal tract characteristics, nasal cavity characteristics,or voicing characteristics.
 15. The system of claim 11, wherein thefirst set of voice characteristics comprises a set of acoustic featureparameters.
 16. The system of claim 11, wherein the first set of voicecharacteristics comprises a set of transforms.
 17. The system of claim11, wherein receiving the user input indication comprises receiving aspeech input spoken by the user, the speech input captured by an audioinput device in communication with the data processing hardware.
 18. Thesystem of claim 1, wherein providing the synthesized speech for outputcomprises providing the synthesized speech to an audio output device incommunication with the data processing hardware, the audio output deviceconfigured to audibly output the synthesized speech.
 19. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the data processing hardware resides on a computingdevice associated with the user.
 20. The system of claim 11, wherein theoperations further comprise, prior to receiving the sample speechsegment: prompting the particular speaker to recite a training textsample, wherein the sample speech segment corresponds to the particularspeaker reciting the training text sample.